Australia news LIVE: Albanese backs Rudd after Trump run-in; Trump-Putin summit called off amid pressure to negotiate ceasefire with Ukraine

Flood risk has cost Australians $42.2 billion in property valuations, according to the latest Climate Council report.

Homes in Queensland and New South Wales were most at risk of floods and had been disproportionately devalued compared to properties in other parts of the country, the analysis of more than two decades of data by real estate appraiser PropTrack revealed.

“Since 2000, the price growth gap between flood-prone and flood-free homes in Australia has reached 22 percentage points,” the report said.

It said one in six homes were flood-prone, and those property prices rose at a slower rate than flood-free homes.

“As of April 2025, the median value of a typical home at risk of flooding is valued $75,500 lower than a typical home without flood risks,” the report said.

US President Donald Trump is urging a judge to let him continue a $US10 billion ($15.4 billion) libel lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch over a Wall Street Journal article claiming he sent a bawdy birthday note to Jeffrey Epstein, saying the news outlet still hasn’t been able to prove the letter is real.

An identical birthday note handed over to the House Oversight Committee by the Epstein estate does not prove that Trump actually wrote and sent the letter, the president’s lawyer said in a filing urging the court to deny Murdoch and News Corp’s request to dismiss the case.

“On the contrary, the defendants’ reliance on a purported letter released over a month after the complaint was filed proves that defendants did not actually possess, or even review, any purported letter before publishing the false and defamatory article,” Alejandro Brito, Trump’s lawyer, said.

News Corp didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the filing.

The report, which described a 2003 note containing a sketch of a naked woman that bore Trump’s signature and was compiled with other letters into a “birthday book” for Epstein’s 50th birthday, was published amid a firestorm of criticism over the Trump administration’s handling of documents from the financier’s criminal case.

Bloomberg

Victoria is poised to benefit from a landmark critical minerals deal with the United States, but farmers warn a ramp-up in mining could put the state’s food bowl at risk.

The new Australia-US critical minerals agreement will speed up a $13 billion pipeline of projects.

Victoria has “globally significant” quantities of titanium, zirconium, and rare-earth elements in mineral sand deposits, as well as the country’s only operating antimony mine, the state government says. Antimony is used to harden lead in storage batteries and in the semiconductor industry.

Developing these resources would “create jobs and economic activity for Victoria’s regions, provide royalties to the people of Victoria, supply ethically sourced materials into the market and strengthen Victorian and Australian supply chains”, the government said.

But Victoria’s small land size and dense population could lead to greater opposition to further mining projects, according to the government’s critical minerals road map. “Competing land uses, proximity to urban centres and environmental considerations can impact community confidence in mining operations,” it said.

Read the full report by consumer affairs reporter Madeleine Heffernan.

Liberal backbencher Jane Hume has criticised calls from within her own party for the removal of Kevin Rudd as the US ambassador, labelling her colleagues “churlish” for seizing on US President Donald Trump’s comments to the former prime minister.

“There is no doubt that the president made a bit of a goose of Kevin Rudd, and perhaps so he should for those ill-advised, ill-considered tweets that he made. I think, though, that the call for Kevin Rudd to resign or stand down… is probably a little bit churlish,” she told Sky News.

Prominent Coalition figures, including Opposition Leader Sussan Ley, have said Trump’s dislike for Rudd made his ambassadorship untenable, despite the landmark critical minerals deal Australia inked with US yesterday.

“I don’t think that there’s any need here to behave in a way that would be considered churlish. We should be acknowledging the good work that has been done,” Hume said.

She said she welcomed the deal because the investment in Australian industry was in the national interest.

“Of course this is a good deal. It’s a good deal for WA… it’s also a good deal for Victoria. We also have rare earths, critical minerals here. So I’m very pleased with this deal.”

Leader of the National Party David Littleproud has welcomed Australia’s critical minerals deal with the United States, but criticised how long it took for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to lock in a meeting with US President Donald Trump.

“Let me firstly say, we welcome the critical minerals deal with the United States, but I think it’s more about good luck than good management. President Xi [Jinping] basically laid it in our lap… the evidence is still clear that the prime minister wasn’t able to get into the White House for over 330 days since his election, when other leaders have waltzed into the White House and have cut better deals,” Littleproud said on Sky this morning.

Littleproud also acknowledged the awkward exchange yesterday at the White House between Trump and Australian ambassador to the United States, Kevin Rudd, and said he was not convinced Rudd was the best candidate for the role.

“We’ve got to be honest. I think the reality is, is President Trump doesn’t like him, has never liked him, and there’s been clear evidence that we have been held back. And while this deal is great, we didn’t get any concessions on steel or any other tariffs that other countries have carved out.”

“So I’m not convinced that Kevin Rudd is the best candidate in Washington and doesn’t have the full confidence of the administration,” the Nationals leader said.

Most Australian exports to the United States are subject to a 10 per cent tariff, the lowest rate applied by Trump, but a 50 per cent tariff applies to steel and aluminium exports.

Assistant Minister for Multicultural Affairs Julian Hill has taken aim at the Coalition for criticism some members of the opposition have levelled at Kevin Rudd, following comments US President Donald Trump directed towards him in the White House yesterday.

“This is a triumph for ambassador Rudd in terms of having delivered these things. They don’t just fall from the sky. I’ll make that point,” Hill told Sky News this morning.

Appearing alongside Hill was Liberal MP Phillip Thompson. “To have the president of the United States… say he doesn’t like him is I think bad for our relationship. It’s bad for our diplomacy,” Thompson said.

But Hill quickly hit back at Thompson. “Look, I know poor old Phil’s got his talking points. But if you don’t believe me, let me read… a quote from The Australian this morning. ‘This is a humiliation to the Coalition. The Albanese-Trump personal concord has left the Coalition discredited and outsmarted, having badly misread the dynamics of the alliance, having underestimated Albanese and Rudd, and having conducted shrill warnings for nine months about the multiple dangers and allegations about a precarious US-Australia relationship.’

“They’ve been howling at the moon, shrieking to anyone who listened, that the ‘world’s going to end. The US alliance is over. The economy is collapsing’. Turns out they have no judgement,” Hill continued.

“The prime minister, I’ve known him for almost 30 years. I’ve said repeatedly, he’s calm, he’s strategic, he’s tough, he’s experienced, he’s caring, he’s insanely hard-working, and he has judgement honed over years. He’s leading a government that is operating in the national interest.”

Hill also took the opportunity to lambast the internal division that has plagued the Coalition in recent weeks.

“I’d also point out that the Coalition is so myopic, so blinded by their own internal divisions and hatreds for each other, they actually voted against the production tax credits, which have been critical to turbocharging and getting industry ready for this deal, which has now landed. I’ve said before, hey, but I’ll just say it one more time: we have a good government. We need a functioning opposition, and we don’t have one,” he said.

Nationals senator Matt Canavan says he is not considering defecting amid speculation former leader Barnaby Joyce could join One Nation.

“I’m not entertaining leaving the party. I’ll fight it out inside the tent,” the senator told ABC radio.

Canavan, who is running an internal review into the party’s net zero policy, said he had not had any conversations with One Nation leader Pauline Hanson.

“I’m happy to take Pauline’s call. She’s a lovely lady. I really enjoyed sitting next to her in the Senate for a few years, and she’s a little bit further away from me now, but no, look, I’ll always talk to any of my Senate colleagues. So happy to have a chat. But no, I haven’t had any recent conversations with Pauline.”

In the US, the White House has celebrated the Australia-US relationship with a social media video of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s meeting with President Donald Trump.

Uplifting music and audio of yesterday’s meeting plays over clips of the two leaders in discussions in several settings, from the corridors to the cabinet room and the Oval Office.

“It’s great to have the prime minister of Australia, a lot of friends over there… we work together very much on rare earths, critical minerals, and lots of other things,” said the post signed “President Donald J. Trump” and carrying the two countries’ flags.